“How do you fix a country that doesn’t think it is broken?” That is one of many questions asked in the new musical Suffs. Shania Taub penned the book, music and lyrics to this tale of the women’s suffrage movement resulting in passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
A cast of twenty women (and nonbinary) portray a multitude of historical figures in this telling. Ms. Taub plays the central figure of Alice Paul. She founded the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1916. They were aggressively militant and picketed at the White House. Some landed in jail, went on a hunger strike and were force fed. This part of the show drags on.
More interesting is the right way versus wrong way dynamic between Paul and her contemporary, Carrie Chapman Catt (Jenn Colella). She led the two million members of the National American Woman Suffage Association. They were focused on turning the states one by one. Ms. Paul wanted to go after a faster federal solution by not following the ways of “ineffective fossils”.
Woodrow Wilson (Grace McLean) is a jovial song and dance “man” playing the politician’s game of delay. The journalist Ida B. Wells (an excellent Nikki M. James) who led the anti-lynching crusade in the 1890’s participates. The popular labor lawyer Inez Milholland (Phillipa Soo) rides her famous white horse in a white cloak. There are numerous characters to track and the book does a fairly good job of keeping the storyline clear.
The musical is nearly entirely sung through. As a result, there are many sections which drone on. That is partly because the show is too long and also because many songs are unmemorable. They exist to be dialogue and it is obvious.
All of the names these women were called are used here to remind us of the harsh times. Women were told not to “raise your voice”. “Don’t domineer”. “No one likes a battleaxe”. History shows, however, that the “hoard of hysterical harpies” prevailed.
“How will we do it when it’s never been done?” This recurring dilemma is central to the tale. “How long must we wait for liberty?” is asked. This particular moment more than slightly borrows from the Hamilton score which asked “Why do you write like you’re running out of time?”
Director Leigh Silverman keeps the action moving but focus is a challenge. The big group comes in and out of the action to make points of suffrage in general and inhabit these historical figures in particular. Perhaps if the music stopped and conversation happened the personalities would be more sharply defined.
As far as the music goes, many performers seemed to struggle with the score. I’ve seen many of these actresses before and they are a very talented bunch. That there were so many rough singing patches in a brand new score with its original cast was odd.
Ms. Paul has a number of sidekicks who join her in her incessant drive to get women the right to vote. Nadia Dandashi memorably plays Doris Stevens who was the secretary of NWP. She later wrote the 1920 book Jailed for Freedom. Hannah Cruz’s take on Ruza Wenclawska was enjoyable. Ally Bonino was also terrific as Lucy Burns who spent more time in prison than any other American woman suffragist.
There will be an audience for Suffs and the run at The Public is sold out. The period is a fascinating piece of the long evolution of “equality for all” Americans. That battle still rages on. A great story does not make a great musical, however. This one needs major tightening if it has big dreams of Broadway which, given the pedigree, seems a likely goal.
Performances of Suffs at The Public Theater are scheduled through May 15, 2022.